


Slamming Doors

by pylades



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, pulitzer family feelz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 08:52:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1598957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pylades/pseuds/pylades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Pulitzer never apologizes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slamming Doors

**Author's Note:**

> I have a thing about Katherine and Joe. He's not as much of an asshole in my book as he could be and I'm not even ashamed to admit it.

She doesn't mean to slam the door when she enters the house.

She's just. So. ANGRY.

And Jack has pulled away from the curb, tires squealing (the guy with a car version of slamming the door, she guesses), so slamming the door feels SO GOOD that Katherine almost forgets that her dad is home.

Until she hears that frustratingly even tone he uses when she's disappointed him come from his office -

" - Katherine Lucille Pulitzer."

And there it is. Her full name.

She sighs and shifts out her slump, smoothing her skirt and then her hair. Appearance is everything to Joe Pulitzer - Katherine knows that better than most - so she'll make up for the slamming by making sure she looked composed before striding into his office.

"Hi, Dad."

Joe glances up from his computer, the glasses perched at the end of his nose only adding to the disapproving Professor-ly scowl. (She's actually seen it described that way on the entry for PULITZER, JOSEPH at Rate My Professor. Of course, that rating included a hot chili pepper which freaked her out. College girls are weird.)

"I presume you're fighting with the boy again." Joe remarks, closing the lid of his laptop with a snap.

"Yeah. I mean, yes." She does slump a little now. Katherine can't help it. She's mad. She's still so mad. "We were at this par - event and -"

Her father raises his hand to stop her. "I don't need details. I don't want details. Join me in the kitchen, Katherine."

She follows him dutifully, although she'd much rather be upstairs in her bedroom. Jack has probably already told Davey about the fight, which means that Sarah knows -- and her phone is sure to be buzzing with text messages soon enough. 

But there's no telling her dad 'no', so Katherine takes a seat at the kitchen table while Joe moves between cabinet and refrigerator. He finally joins her, sliding a mug of something hot in front of Katherine.

"You two fight often." he remarks, as she takes a first sip. It's hot chocolate - and not just normal hot chocolate, but the kind her Mom made them when she was little. She can taste the rich marshmallow fluff as it rises to the top of the liquid.

"He's just so stubborn," Katherine mutters into her cup. 

She's so busy staring into her mug that she doesn't see the small grin on her father's face - it's there for only a brief moment before it's gone. 

"You're rather stubborn yourself, you know." Joe says, taking a drink of his own hot chocolate. "In fact, you're very much like me."

Katherine looks up. "And the next thing you'll say is that Jack is like -"

"-your mother? Well, there are some similarities."

"You and Mom divorced when I was seven, Dad. That's not really a happy story to use as a comparison."

"Your mother and I remain good friends. Anyway, I didn't mean it as any sort of comparison, Katherine Lucille." He reaches over, awkwardly taking her hand. Her dad isn't one for touch. He uses words more often than the physical. "Stubborn people are often attracted to other stubborn people. Those relationships can end, as you know. But that isn't necessarily always the case."

Katherine turns her hand over, threading her fingers through her fathers, and tries to smile.

"You are both stubborn individuals. You fight -- frequently. You also make up -- quickly."

He squeezes her hand, only releasing it when they hear a car door slam in the distance. He expects to hear - and isn't disappointed - a fist pounding on the door moments later.

"Katherine?" he says, as she rises. "Just remember that a Pulitzer is never wrong."

She's almost to the door when Joe speaks again. "And never slam a door again in this house."


End file.
